The present disclosure relates to a remote terminal device and a method of operating the remote terminal device, and more particularly, to a remote terminal device, which includes a programmable logic controller (PLC) control device having an industrial versa module eurocard bus (VMEbus) structure, and a method of operating the remote terminal device.
Facility controllers provided in industrial plants (such as gas plants, water and sewage plants, power plants, or water resource plants) include various sensors and devices for driving motors, and such sensors and devices can be easily operated remotely or on-site by an automatic inspection/control system.
In addition, such sensors and devices need a PLC function, such as process control, sequence control, or group control between device groups, under specific conditions.
Remote terminal devices (remote terminal units (RTUs)) used in the industrial plants have a PLC function. Such a remote terminal device receives mechanical/electrical signal information from various field devices disposed in a site, and converts the mechanical/electrical signal information into digital data. Then, the remote terminal device may use the digital data as input information of a PLC control logic, and output information of the PLC control logic is output as control information for the field devices, thereby appropriately operating a plant device and facility.
However, a typical software type PLC function may be applied to a remote terminal device, thereby negatively affecting a process performance of a main processor of the remote terminal device. In addition, when an operation speed and a memory margin are insufficient, a high level main module is needed, which increases costs.